Even In Death
by Pyro Venus
Summary: Rei has died, and Minako can't seem to get over the tragic loss of her one and only. Warning: Shoujo-Ai content.


Even In Death  
  
By Pyro Venus  
  
A/N: Warning: this is a yuri fic. that means F/F, lesbian romance, shoujo- ai!  
  
Ok ppl, I know I haven't worked on either of my other stories, but don't hurt me!!! I'm in a really depressed mood, so if you cry while reading this, feel free to praise or flame. Your choice.  
  
"....." speaking  
  
*....* song 'Even In Death' by Evanescence.  
  
'.....' thoughts  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon or any of the Senshi. The only thing I own is this plot.  
  
I held my dying love, my dear sweet Rei-ko in my arms. Her crimson blood, the fiery blood that had once run through her proud veins, stained my Senshi fuku and pooled upon the snowy ground, each drop being soaked up as if the snow were a sponge.  
  
"R-Rei-ko..." I murmered sadly, my voice full of regret and bitterness that I wasn't there to save her. Her heavily-lashed eyelids fluttered open as she slipped in and out of consciousness, and, finally her amethyst eyes saw me. Somehow, I knew there was enough of my beloved left in that dying body to recognize me, to see me for who I really was, as she had done so many times before when she was radiant with life.  
  
"Aino-chan..." she muttered sleepily, blood trickling from the corner of her rose-petal lips. I almost laughed. Her nickname for me was both a way of saying 'sweetheart' and a play on my last name. "Ai....ai....Aishiteru."  
  
"Nani. I know, my love. Aishiteru..."  
  
"I will..." she paused to cough up a torrent of blood, and suddenly the tears sprang to my eyes as I realized that my love had reached the verge of death. "I will...always...be with you...my Aino-chan..." she whispered, reaching a gloved hand to wipe my tears away, only succeeding in smearing her blood across my face.  
  
Suddenly her hand dropped, and I knew she lay forever in eternal sleep.  
  
I felt the presence of Sailors Moon, Mercury and Jupiter behind me. I turned, the body of my one and only still in my arms, and my azure eyes met the emerald, sapphire and silver eyes of my fellow Senshi. Serenity was crying, Makoto gritted her teeth and clenched her fists angrily, and Ami turned away from the body, unable to stop vomiting at the sight of so much blood.  
  
"Let's go." I said, my voice never wavering, for I knew that, even in death, my beloved Rei was still with me, and would be forever.  
  
Two days later...  
  
I smoothed back my golden hair and placed a black satin hairbow within it, not even needing to look in the mirror on my vanity table to see my reflection. I did anyway, and saw a pale, gaunt face staring back at me, her slim frame in a black satin dress that looked to be a size too big. My reflection was nearly a completely different person, regardless of how many days Rei had been dead. I sighed and readjusted the bow, wondering how it would look off to the side.  
  
As my hand moved sideways, the shadows in the background of my reflection suddenly shifted, somehow forming a graceful, thin frame with long, straight hair. I knew every curve, every inch of this shadow, for it was that of my one and only.  
  
I gasped, and in doing so my hand moved the slightest bit, changing the shadow and making it my own once more.  
  
*Give me a reason to believe that you're gone.  
I see your shadow, so I know they're all wrong.*  
  
At the funeral, I barely paid attention, instead looking at the crowd that had attended Rei's funeral.  
  
'Do these many people really love my Rei-ko?' I wondered, seeing the faces of so many people, both familiar and unfamiliar. Ami and Makoto stood a few people away from me, Ami's face buried in her hands, and Makoto comforting her. I smiled to myself. A funeral was the very place Rei and I first confessed our love to one another. The funeral of her grandfather, to be exact.  
  
Serenity and Mamoru were right behind me. I could hear Serenity's muffled sobs as she held Mamoru close, and Mamoru's gentle whispers. Only they weren't Mamoru's whispers anymore...and they weren't so far away as Serenity's ear...  
  
"Shhh...Aino-chan. I'm still here with you. Don't cry." Rei's voice said as a salty tear slid down my left cheek. I wiped it away and discovered that I was still at the funeral, but I could hear nothing but my sweet Rei-ko's voice. It comforted me to know that she was still there, even in death.  
  
That Night.....  
  
I passed building after building later on, walking onwards to a destination even I didn't know of. I had hardly been able to sleep at all, and when I did sleep, my dreams were of myself awakening next to my ebony- haired Hellcat. Even buried up yo my knees in snow, I could feel her fiery spirit surrounding me, smothering me with power and affection.  
  
I knew that she was gone, but...when she was so close to me... I just found it so hard to believe. I could still picture the way the candlelight lit up her beautiful face on our first night together, how her wine-colored eyes sparkled as we passionately made love. I knew that she was still with me. I could still hear her moans as we pressed against eachother, her deep, peace-laden breathing afterwards. I could still feel her body, so close yet so far from me. She kept me warm, yet her memory left me so cold. Confusion met me at every corner.  
  
Was she there, or wasn't she?  
  
Before I knew what I was doing, I had climbed over the frost-covered cemetary gate, in search for her grave.  
  
A short while later, I was standing in front of an icy, newly-dug plot of land, covered in the mystical light of the Moon. A small version of the Hikawa Shrine was engraved upon a snow-covered tombstone bearing the following inscriptions:  
  
~Hino Rei~  
  
~April 17, 1986 ~ January 19, 2005~  
  
~Field of Fire, may you live on, even in death.~  
  
'Even in death...' I thought. I had used that phrase so many times in my mind, but now I really thought about it's meaning. 'Yes, she's alive, even in death...'  
  
*Moonlight on the soft brown earth.  
It leads me to where you lay.  
They took you away from me, but now I'm taking you home.*  
  
"VENUS RUBY POWER!" I shouted, my hand shooting upward as golden flames engulfed me and my vision was blinded. I didn't know where I had gotted the Henshin phrase, or how. All I knew was that this was something I had to try.  
  
When the blinding light ceased, I opened my cobalt eyes and looked down at my Senshi fuku with an astonished gasp.  
  
My skirt was shorter than before, with a transparent pattern of crimson flames along the bottom of golden fabric. The bodysuit that was normally white had turned a bloodred color, and the normally blue bows in the fromt and back of my fuku were golden, with the same flame pattern as the skirt. Needless to say, the new fuku was...interesting.  
  
Looking upward, I saw the planet of war, Mars, glimmering above me.  
  
"Thank you." I murmered softly, kissing my fingertips and raising them skyward as a tribute to my lost love. I kneeled to the ground, knowing what I had to do, and touched my fingers th the earth where my love was resting.  
  
"Venus Fire of Life!" I yelled, focusing every bit of my energy on bringing my Rei-ko back from the dead. An awesome power filled me, starting at the soles of my high-heeled shoes, going up my legs, my torso, and finally to the very roots of my hair, where a bloodred light exploded, shimmying itself all the way to Mars and diving back to hit Rei's tombstone, where it began to form a shape.  
  
First came the small, high-heeled feet, and the slim, curvaceous legs that had wrapped themselves around my waist many times before. I gaped in shock, my lips chapped from the cold, and watched onward as her slender torso formed, and her perfect bosom. Her skinny neck sprouted from firm, delicate shoulders, and her rose petal lips appeared on a delicate jawline. I stood up, barely aware as the cold numbed my feet and legs. Before the shape of my beloved was completed, I gathered her in my arms and pressed my lips to hers in an everlasting kiss.  
  
"Aino-chan..." she murmered, worry clouding what I knew to be love and sexual tension within her voice. At the sound of her voice, my head snapped up and I let go of her.  
  
"Hai, my Rei-ko?" I queried, recognizing the worry in her voice almost immediatley.  
  
"Aino-chan... I don't know how to say this, but... you have to let me go. I cannot get between the barrier of life and death. I'm stuck." my ebony-haired angel said in a whisper. "When I said I'd always be with you, I didn't mean literally. Mina-ko, you need to move on."  
  
I could hardly believe what I was hearing. My one, my only love was telling me to let her go? "No... Rei, I can't do that. I'll be with you forever. You'll be with me forever. Rei..." tears choked my voice as I saw the anguish I felt form in her face "Rei... Ai... Aishiteru... I cannot let you go."  
  
"But..." Rei said. When she saw the determination in my facial cast, I knew that she once again saw inside of me. Se saw how much I needed her, how much I needed her beside me to live. Her expression suddenly changed, became soft and full of compassion. "Hai... hai, I understand.... Aino- chan, Aishiteru... until we meet again, my love." she whispered, disappearing in the blink of an eye.  
  
"REI-KO!!!" I screamed, hugging the frozen tombstone, my tears becoming icicles upon my cheeks. "I'll be with you shortly." I whispered, resting my soggy blonde head on the top of the tombstone and willing my new transformation away.  
  
'Aishiteru...until we meet again, my love.' her hushed voice replayed inside my head, over and over.  
  
*I will stay forever here with you,  
My love.  
The softly spoken words you gave me.  
Even in death, our love goes on*  
  
Hours later found me still clutching the tombstone with my bare hands as Serenity and Mamoru attempted to pry my half-dead body from it.  
  
"Mina-chan, come on... I don't want to lose another of my guardians..." Serenity said, pulling one of my freezing hands from the stone. I was still very much awake inside my head, where I could stay with my Rei for all eternity.  
  
"Aino Minako, if you don't wake up RIGHT NOW, I'm going to pour this bucket of boiling water on your fucking head!" Mamoru threatened. "Do you REALLY want your hair to be stuck to Rei's tombstone forever?"  
  
"I wouldn't mind..." I muttered under my breath, opening an eye and stretching my right arm, accidently hitting Mamoru in the face.  
  
Serenity threw her arms around me. "Mina-chan!!! I was so afraid you were.....you were..."  
  
"Dead?" I supplied sarcastically "I only wish."  
  
In an instant I was mentally kicking myself for being so harsh to my Princess, and was truly sorry as the tears welled up in her big cobalt eyes.  
  
"B-b-b-but you saw how p-p-painful it w-was for R-Re-R-Rei! Why do you want to die?! M-M-M-Miiiiina!!! I don't want y-y-you to dddiiieee!!!" Serenity wailed, squeezing me as tightly as she could. "D-d-d-d-don't s-say things li-like th-t-that!"  
  
Mamoru shot me an icy glare as he pulled Serenity from me. "Shh...Angel, it's all right. She's just in shock..."  
  
That's what they thought.  
  
Night after night I was found sleeping on the patch of ground that held my beloved, and no matter what they did, the other Senshi could never stop me. Finally, it was Ami who suggested I was locked away before I killed myself in the blistering cold.  
  
The nights I supposedly spent in the insomnia ward of the hospital, I snuck out of my room and once more slept near my love. Nothing could tear me from her side. I could still hear her sweet voice, singing the song she had sang to me so many weeks ago.  
  
"Oh starry night,  
Tell me, is she my own true love?" I sang, unaware of the stares I got from people who passed the cemetary.  
  
*Some say I'm crazy for my love. Oh, my love.  
But no bonds can hold me from your side, oh my love.  
They don't know you can't leave me.  
They don't hear you singing to me.*  
  
Finally, they just left me to be with my Rei, and so I stayed with her, sitting in the snow in my nightgown, talking to her, hoping she heard me.  
  
*I will stay forever here with you  
My love  
The softly spoken words you gave me  
Even in death our love goes on.*  
  
Aishiteru, Rei-ko.  
  
*And I can't love you, anymore than I do.*  
  
A/N: *sniff* so sad! Well, R&R! Don't just sit there crying!!! 


End file.
